This invention relates to a folding roof for an automobile.
A known folding roof has a front hood bar, slidably guided at both sides of the roof opening on lateral guide rails and movable by a drive device, a fixed, rear hood bar and a foldable hood extending between the hood bars, which foldable hood is tightened by the front hood bar on closure, the front hood bar, when the roof is closed, being pressed with its front edge sealed onto the fixed automobile roof.
In folding roofs of this type, it is of great importance that the front hood bar, when the roof is closed, shall hold the hood tightened and, in the last phase of its movement, shall be pressed sealingly and firmly with its front edge onto the forward, fixed roof surface.
In a known folding roof of this type (DE 37 22 434 A1), on either side of the forward hood bar, opening/closing mechanisms are provided which, in conjunction with the drive device acting thereon, are intended to assure the tightening and pressing-on. For this purpose vertically disposed guide plates, displaceable on the lateral guide rails, are provided on the opening/closing mechanisms, in the straight, oblique guide slits of which guide plates guide pins engage, these pins being mounted on driven slide blocks, also displaceable on the lateral guide rails.
By the lateral arrangement of the opening/closing mechanisms, fairly remote from the front edge of the front hood bar, the front edge is not subjected to a pressure sufficient for all requirements, especially not in its central region. Since the inclined guide slits in the vertically disposed guide plates are only comparatively short, only a small guide slit travel distance is available for the tightening and closing of the known folding roof, so that considerable application of force is necessary in tightening and closing. Furthermore, the vertically mounted plates of the opening/closing mechanisms increase the overall height of the folding roof construction.